The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Automatic transmission vehicles typically include a torque converter between the engine and the transmission. Typical torque converters include a pump, a turbine, and a stator, in which the stator blades are positioned at a fixed pitch within the torque converter. The pitch of the stator blades is usually chosen optimize performance, e.g., fuel economy, power, noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) across the full range of operating speeds. This optimization across the entire range typically results in lower than optimal performance for any specific speed.
Attempts at producing variable pitch stators were made in the past, but these attempts typically required each blade to be handled and assembled one at a time. A typical stator can include around twenty to thirty stator blades. The labor intensive processes needed to produce those variable pitch torque converters made those early variable pitch stators cost prohibitive to use in large production quantities and could also result in greater scrap rates due to more opportunities for assembly error.
These and other limitations of traditional torque converter stators are addressed by the present disclosure.